The New York State Board for Historic Preservation has recommended 23 properties and districts to the State and National Registers of Historic Places. The nominations include an octagonal circus house in Cortland County, an intact Catskills mountain lodge in Ulster County, a railroad focused historic district in Clinton County, the legendary Holcombe Rucker Park Basketball Court in New York City, and many more. [Read more…] about 23 Nominations to State and National Registers
Watervliet
Seth Concklin: A Daring, Dedicated New York Abolitionist
Many New Yorkers before the Civil War contributed to the abolition of slavery, and the dangerous work of helping enslaved African-Americans flee their captors. Take Calvin Fairbank, a New York Methodist pastor born 1816, who spent 17 years in prison for his missions to help enslaved people escape.
Seth Concklin, a New Yorker whose name and sacrifice were more familiar in the 19th century, died tragically in 1851 while trying to help a mother and her three children escape from slavery. [Read more…] about Seth Concklin: A Daring, Dedicated New York Abolitionist
Evert Wendell Account Books Reveal Life in 1695-1789
The New York Historical Society has digitized their Evert Wendell collection, including five account books in Dutch and English covering the period from 1695 to 1758 and one docket book (in English).
Evert Wendell (1681-1750) was a Dutch-descended Albany merchant, fur trader, and attorney, who conducted business with Native Americans in upstate New York and with colonists in Albany, Schenectady, New York City, and Boston. [Read more…] about Evert Wendell Account Books Reveal Life in 1695-1789
The Baiting Ring: Bulls, Bears & Brutality in 19th Century New York
Before they were suppressed in the late nineteenth century, some New Yorkers enjoyed cruel sports which would not be tolerated today. Among these were “baiting” which pitted specially trained dogs against various other species. This was a favorite of both city and country dwellers, and was sometimes even more popular than cockfighting.
Although baiting came from the Romams who matched every species of bird and beast they could, it continued in England where there is evidence that even before Tudor times (1485-1603) Britons practicing cockfighting as well as bull, badger and bear baiting. [Read more…] about The Baiting Ring: Bulls, Bears & Brutality in 19th Century New York
Troy’s Port and Harbor Facilities in the 1940s
The following description is from 1941.
The city of Troy is situated on the Hudson River, approximately 151 miles north of the Battery, New York City. It is the eastern and southern termini of the Erie and Champlain branches, respectively, of the New York State Barge Canal System.
The harbor [in 1941] embraces the entire waterfront of the city of Troy from the southerly limits of the city to the Federal lock and dam, the controlling channel depths being 11 feet with widths varying from 170 to 400 feet up to the Delaware & Hudson Railroad bridge, and from 90 to 300 feet to the Lock. [Read more…] about Troy’s Port and Harbor Facilities in the 1940s
200 Years of Erie Canal History (1825-2025)
In 2025, New York State commemorates the 200th anniversary of the opening of the Erie Canal from Albany to Buffalo. This event was transformative for both the state and the nation, linking the Great Lakes with the Hudson River and the Atlantic Ocean in an unprecedentedly efficient waterway.
During the bicentennial, we are offered an opportunity to reflect on two centuries of rich and complex history and discover how that period’s impacts allow us to explore and enjoy the Canal today. Here is some history, and tips for enjoying the canal. [Read more…] about 200 Years of Erie Canal History (1825-2025)
Albany and Troy: 19th Century Commercial Rivals
The ambitions of Albany and Troy for commercial supremacy in the nineteenth century illustrate clearly the varied pattern of the transportation history of the United States and furnish a striking example of intercity rivalry. Only a few struggles such as that between Tacoma and Seattle to become the eastern terminus of the transcontinentals can match the bitterness of the Troy – Albany feud. [Read more…] about Albany and Troy: 19th Century Commercial Rivals
When Vikings Traveled The Hudson River & Erie Canal
In June of 1893, young and old alike came out in droves to see a strange-looking craft as it made its way westward along the Erie Canal. What had brought them out on those summer days was a replica of a Viking ship that had recently crossed the Atlantic on an epic journey whose story had begun one thousand years before.
Sometime around the year 900 a Norse ruler died and was buried in a king mound that over the hundreds of years that followed became known as Gokstadhaugen outside of Sandefjord, Norway. Though the name of the king was lost over the ages, legends concerning the site were passed down from generation to generation. [Read more…] about When Vikings Traveled The Hudson River & Erie Canal
1889 Tows on the Hudson River: Great Fleets of Freight Boats
This article, “Tows on the Hudson. The Great Fleets of Freight Boats That Come Down the River,” first appeared in the August 18, 1889 edition of The New York Times. It was transcribed by Hudson River Maritime Museum volunteer Carl Mayer and annotated by John Warren.
Very few persons who journey up and down the Hudson River either upon the palatial steamers or upon the railway trains that run along both banks of this great waterway know how great an amount of wealth is daily floated to this [New York] city on the canal boats and barges that compose the immense tows that daily leave West Troy [now Watervliet], Lansingburg, Albany, Kingston, and other points along the river bound for this city. [Read more…] about 1889 Tows on the Hudson River: Great Fleets of Freight Boats
New Netherlanders’ Views of Indigenous People
By 1642, the number of inhabitants of Rensselaerwyck (spelled Rensselaerswijck in Dutch), at the time basically what is now Albany and Rensselaer Counties, had grown and Patroon Kiliaen Van Rensselaer willingly complied with a requirement of the Dutch West India Company to secure a clergyman for a Dutch Church to conduct services for the settlers. [Read more…] about New Netherlanders’ Views of Indigenous People
Albany’s Abraham Ten Broeck: A Short Biography
Abraham Ten Broeck was born in 1734 to Dirck Ten Broeck (1686-1751) and Margarita Cuyler (1682–1783). Abraham was one of twelve children born to the couple. Abraham first-generation grandfather had come to America from Holland in 1626 on the same ship with Peter Minuit, the first Director General of the Dutch colony of New Netherland. [Read more…] about Albany’s Abraham Ten Broeck: A Short Biography
The Transcontinental Railroad & The Capital District
On
May 10, 1869 the first United States Transcontinental Railroad was completed when a 17.6-karat gold ceremonial spike was driven into a railroad tie by Leland Stanford.
Begun in 1863, the “Pacific Railroad” or “Overland Route” was a joint, although competitive, endeavor between the Central Pacific Railroad (CPRR), moving east from San Francisco to meet the Union Pacific Railroad (UPRR) which headed west from Council Bluffs, Iowa. The two railroad lines finally met at Promontory Point, Utah, after workers laid 1,912 miles of contiguous track. [Read more…] about The Transcontinental Railroad & The Capital District
The Capitol Region’s Race Course: Island Park
The Hudson River in New York’s Capital Region has always been a vital transportation link, and it also provides a conduit to undertakings of the past. The area presently occupied by Interstate-787 and its connectors to NY-378 were constructed on what had been a cluster of islands in the Hudson River, near Menands, between Albany and Watervliet.
Even in the 1820s, the road here became noted for unofficial, and illegal, horse racing. [Read more…] about The Capitol Region’s Race Course: Island Park
Tom Kilboy: Balladeer of the Erie Canal
This week on The Historians Podcast, David Brooks, education director at Schoharie Crossing State Historic site in Fort Hunter, takes a look at life on the wild side of the Erie Canal with tales about the Kilboys, including balladeer Tom Kilboy. [Read more…] about Tom Kilboy: Balladeer of the Erie Canal
Erie Canal Balladeer Tom Kilboy: A Short Biography
This might just be the image of a once well-known but now forgotten canal man who boasted fast cash and could bellow sweet, eloquent canal ballads near Waterford and Cohoes, active for decades between the 1870s to the early 20th century.
On December 22, 1938, Works Progress Administration (WPA) worker R. P. Gray came into the acquaintance of one Tom Kilboy. Gray was part of the Federal Writers’ Project, created in 1935 “to provide employment for historians, teachers, writers, librarians, and other white-collar workers” according to the Library of Congress.
It was in that work that Kilboy had been interviewed in his apartment at 2307 Broadway, West Troy – today’s Watervliet. [Read more…] about Erie Canal Balladeer Tom Kilboy: A Short Biography
Early Helderberg Settlers: The Fischer – Wood House
One of the earliest settlers above the Helderberg Escarpment was Piter Fischer who homesteaded on the flats below the current hamlet of Berne, Albany County, in about 1740. He married Dorothea Ball, whose father, Peter Ball probably, owned the next farm to the west.
They were among the earliest settlers in Beaver Dam (now Berne, Albany County) and settled on choice valley land. [Read more…] about Early Helderberg Settlers: The Fischer – Wood House
Jermain Family Philanthropy Helped Shape The Capital District
John Jordan left Edinburgh, Scotland in 1755 arriving in White Plains, colony of New York, the same year. Edinburgh had been the family home since Jordan’s father and grandfather fled France for Scotland following the St. Bartholomew’s Day massacre of French Huguenots in the late 1600s. John struck out on his own and decided to immigrate to America.
John married Mary Ann Daniels, a young woman of Dutch descent, and in 1758 they had a son, John Jordan, Jr. With the outbreak of the American Revolution in 1775, John Jordan, Sr. and his wife left New York and helped found the loyalist colony of St. John, New Brunswick, just across the Maine border. Their 19-year-old son, John Jr., stayed behind. [Read more…] about Jermain Family Philanthropy Helped Shape The Capital District
Downtown Troy’s First Bridge Over The Hudson: A Short History
In the 19th century, America had vast forests of virgin timber, unlike Europe, which during the Middle Ages had used up most of its largest trees. (The remaining were saved for ships’ masts.)
One of the first developments of the Industrial Revolution was water powered sawmills. Thus was born the covered bridge, made of heavy structural timbers for trusses, and sheathed with easily-replaceable wood sheathing to protect the structure members from rotting. (This was years before creosote was used to protect exposed wood.) [Read more…] about Downtown Troy’s First Bridge Over The Hudson: A Short History
Bout of the Century: Heenan and Sayers
Britain and the US share a passion for boxing. Over time, it has been both mass entertainment and highbrow delight for writers from Byron to Norman Mailer, or artists from Cruikshanks to Bellows. In 1949, Kirk Douglas made his name as Midge Kelly in Champion. The greatest sporting event of the nineteenth century was a bout between a London bricklayer and a New York blacksmith. Both were of Irish descent. They became sporting super stars. [Read more…] about Bout of the Century: Heenan and Sayers
Military History Event at Schuyler Flatts This Weekend
The City of Watervliet Historical Society will host a “Time Line of World History” at the Schuyler Flatts Cultural Park on Saturday and Sunday, August 19-20, from 10 am to 4 pm Rt.
This family friendly event will have re-enactors of various wars including Union and Confederate Civil War units. There will be strong representation of U.S. Civil War re-enactors, as well as 20th Century German and Italian units, Roman Empire Vikings, and more. There will be displays of military uniforms, customs, drills, and weapons. [Read more…] about Military History Event at Schuyler Flatts This Weekend